Obama Makes It Official: Phone Companies, Not the NSA, Will Store Your Metadata in Bulk

[DonViejo]

ABBY OHLHEISER

President Obama formally confirmed a much-anticipated change to the NSA's bulk phone metadata collection programs: telephone companies — not the NSA — will store that data in bulk going forward. "Having carefully considered the available options," Obama said in a written statement, "I have decided that the best path forward is that the government should not collect or hold this data in bulk." That data will now stay in the hands of the telephone companies, who will keep it for the "length of time it currently does today."

The plan itself already has approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court, but Obama isn't going to act unilaterally to shut off the NSA's collection program (we've explained why here). Given that Congress won't create, agree upon, and pass the needed legislation to enact this plan before the current program goes up for renewal tomorrow, the NSA will get one more 90-day renewal from the FISA court for the collection program under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. After those 90 days are up, the government will have to get orders from the FISA court in order to access the bulk records. However, a statement from the White House notes that the government will be able to bypass the court and query the telephony metadata collection without an order in an "an emergency situation."

The NSA reform proposal released by the White House contains a few more changes, some of which are already at least partially in place:

Consistent with a reform announced in January, queries can only produce records within" two hops of the selection term being used."

The government won't have to go back to FISA court every time they query on a certain target — court orders will allow multiple queries "over a limited period of time without returning to the FISC for approval."

The private companies will be under a court order to give "technical assistance" to make sure the government can query and obtain the records quickly and clearly.

more:
http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/03/obama-makes-it-official-phone-companies-not-the-nsa-will-store-your-metadata-in-bulk/359712/

[The Magistrate]

1. Now There, Sir, Is A Thing To Give Us All Warm Fuzzies, Eh?

If it is going to be done, I confess I prefer it done by the government, rather than by a private entity....

[bowens43]

2. this is better?

[Blue_Tires]

9. According to Snowden, this is much, much better

Big data collection by private corporations was never an issue for him (he said so at SXSW)

[PoliticAverse]

3. "White House notes that the government will be able to bypass"... n/t

[fredamae]

4. Well, That'll help

hahahahahahaha---whew-I feel So Much Better now! All fixed--let's move along.

[SamKnause]

5. Storing data is not the issue.

The government should not be storing the data.

The phone companies, or private companies should not be storing data.

They should not be collecting the data period !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This country is so fucked.

We will never be able to dig out of this hole that our corrupt government and greedy corporations have gotten us into.

The whole lot of them sicken me to my very core.

[Lasher]

6. What's the difference besides privatization of metadata collection and storage?

Predictive policing software programs will still be sniffing at the metadata. And then when the data mining produces something of interest (suspicious words or phrases I guess), the NSA goes to the FISC for approval to conduct multiple queries.

Do I have this right? When you sort your way through the sales pitch, is there any other difference besides this privatization?

[frylock]

7. you people will never be happy..

this will save us a ton of money in storage.

[Wilms]

8. Should we keep this off the Greatest Page? n/t

[jmowreader]

10. You mean, so they can data mine it and sell it to marketers?

[AnnieBW]

11. People forget who Snowden worked for

He worked for government contractor Booz-Allen Hamilton, NOT NSA.